Yankees Activate Brandon Drury From DL, Option Him To Triple-A

The Yankees announced on Monday that they’ve reinstated infielder Brandon Drury from the 10-day disabled list and optioned him to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. The move means that for the time being, New York will continue to rely upon Miguel Andujar, Gleyber Torres, Tyler Austin, Neil Walker and Ronald Torreyes around the infield, with Drury somewhat surprisingly waiting in the wings at Triple-A on the heels of a very productive minor league rehab assignment.

Drury hit the disabled list last month due to ongoing migraine issues and blurred vision. He’s reportedly tried out wearing some yellow-tinted glasses during rehab games in an effort to aid his vision, and while it may have been mere coincidence, the results from his recent stretch of 11 games with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre were impressive; in 42 plate appearances, he hit .343/.452/.514 with a homer and three doubles.

However, Drury’s placement on the DL opened the door for some younger prospects to make their debuts, and during his absence, Walker’s bat began to show signs of life. The veteran Walker is hitting .346/.514/.462 in 35 plate appearances this month and has provided the Yankees with some key hits, while Andujar and Torres have shown varying degrees of promise. In the case of Torres, he’s hitting .319/.360/.493 with three homers through his first 76 big league plate appearances and hasn’t done much of anything to give the Yankees cause to send him back down to the minors.

It’s more arguable that Andujar has shown some cracks at the big league level and could yet be in need of refinement. While he’s hitting .282 with a .458 slugging percentage, Andujar has drawn just three walks in 135 plate appearances, resulting in a paltry .296 on-base percentage. While he’s not striking out much, his .337 average on balls in play is considerably higher than the league norm of .295. If that BABIP regresses at all, then he could very well see his OBP fall into the .280 range. For the time being, he’s hit in six straight games (8-for-25), though all of his hits in that time have been singles.

The Yankees could’ve created a temporary solution by sending Austin to Triple-A, but the 26-year-old has slugged five homers in 89 plate appearances despite hitting just .222 with a .292 on-base percentage. Austin seems likely to be a roster casualty when Greg Bird is ready to be activated from the disabled list anyhow.

Whether due to an injury somewhere around the big league infield or a slump from Andujar, it still seems reasonable to expect that Drury will be back with the Yankees at some point in the relatively near future.

Comments

Why? So you have two players who can play 3rd and only Walker as your 1b? And although his numbers aren’t as pretty as they were 1 week please keep in mind that it really has been an abnormal o for the last 6 games. I would expect that to change,

That being said, it would make more sense (even tho I’m a fan) to send Anduar down to work on his patience at the plate, Gives the team more balance to keep Austin

What are you talking about? Austin only plays 1B (and maybe an emergency OF). He’s been bad for almost 3 weeks now. When Greg Bird comes back, sending down Austin is a no brainer. Walker can play other positions besides 1B as well.

The Yankees are obviously one of the best teams in baseball. Why keep the worst of the 2 players between Andujar and Austin?

Austin has struggled for way more than 6 games. I can see Andujar being sent down when Drury is full ready.

Thank you, Walker not only plays multiple positions, but plays way better defense at first base then Austin. When Drury is ready it’s a no brainer to send Austin packing, he’ll probably be on the DL so the decision will be made easier. Andujar should be getting more time at AAA, he has been horrible both offensively and defensively lately.

Finally, Austin only has 1 option left..
1-You send him down now he loses that option.
2-There won’t be another natural 1b on the 24 man roster to back up Walker should he become injured.
3-If you send Austin down and Walker get’s injured BEFORE Bird gets back or if Bird visits the DL again it means they call up Austin again but risk losing him when either Walker or Bird return off the DL.

Drury on the other hand will most likely not ever face a scenario where he needs to be sent to the minors for any reason other than a medical rehab so burning what I assume is his last option doesn’t matter.

But let’s not act as if Drury was lighting things up before he hit the DL (.217/.333/.391 w/ 1 hr in 23 Abs). Andujar is out hitting him despite the low OBP.

I do expect Drury to improve his numbers but still…..

Finally, let’s keep in mind that Austin, like Torres and Andujar, is TECHNICALLY a rookie this year too and deserves important at bats because long-term it’s probably going to be Bird, Austin or a FA in 2019 at 1B.

Yeah…..great….he plays more than 1 position. Well what happens RIGHT NOW if Walker get’s hurt and there’s no natural 1B on the 24 man roster? Makes more sens to keep Drury down in AAA and send Austin and a relief pitchr/Andujar down once Bird returns and call up Drury too. This way you always have 2 1B on the 24 man.

Cash should call Seattle. Walker is starting to hit and they need a replacement for Cano. At this point Walker is the odd man out. Tyler Austin has more upside and with Bird being a question mark you hang onto the guy you know is a first baseman. Drury is younger and just as good as Walker at this point with much more upside. It makes little sense to keep him at AAA. Torres is the second baseman for the next 10 years. Andujar is going to be very good. When Bird comes back it makes little sense to keep Walker on the team with Torreyes with Drury, Austin and Tyler Wade in AAA.

The luxury tax is in play- if Seattle will take on all of his salary it frees up room for the deadline. Right now it does not make sense for the Yankees to hold onto all these infielders.

First off Walkers contract has a release only clause so he can be a FA other then being traded. Walker is way more valuable then Austin is both defensively and the fact he can switch hit. The infield defense is way better when Walker plays first, and because of Andujars erratic throws Walker has saved a lot of errors..their DWar is better with him at first.

Bird is going to play first so Walker will not keep playing. While he may be better at first than Austin, Austin is under team control for another 5 years. He is still considered a rookie this year. There is no way they keep Walker over Austin. This is not a knock on Walker. Drury is just better and according to Cashman Tyler Wade has the potential to be very good. Why would you block either for Neil Walker in 2018?

Lol at Tyler Wade. Walker is a more consistent performer than Austin and Wade isn’t in consideration. Unless he gets hot again, Austin will be sent down and he will remain an excellent depth piece. Once Drury is ready one of Torreyes or Andujar will be sent down. If Torreyes has no options, I can see him being traded because Walker and Drury are simply better utility players

Not saying he will ever be Wade Boggs but right now, Torryes is out hitting Walker and Drury and it’s not even close. .340/.352/.434 in a small sample size. Still…out hitting Walker and his zerp HRS. I know who will probably be better long term but this “We want Walker” is kind of funny in the sense that the two people likely to be a casualty (Austin, Andujar and Torreyes) have all been more productive with the bat,

I think this is a mistake. Andujar has little to no plate discipline and needs to refine his approach at the plate, while Austin is hitting .220 (albeit with nice power).
Drury is a proven major leaguer.

Andújar is batting .284 with 3 homers. Even though he has a pretty poor OBP at .296, Austin’s is still very slightly worse. Main thing that’s hurting Andújar is his glove, which is showing signs of improvement.

Austin is a lousy player who should of sucked it up over the Kelly pitch. He was hot cuz he was the worse player. So yeah I agree. Nanny Macado prolly will be the mid season n long term solution for the NYY, n the Redsox should just hand them the 2019 division.

I agree with Cashman’s decision. Drury has options so it doesn’t hurt to have him in the minors for now while the team has been clicking and is playing really well. This buys them time to better evaluate Andujar at the big league level. It’s either Andujar does well and sticks or the Yankees go ahead pursuing Machado this offseason. The case could be made keep Drury up and send Austin down and while he has not been playing well, he can play first base and is splitting time with Walker, drury does not really play First base. Austin will most likely be sent down once Bird is back at the end of the month. And soon enough Drury will be up.

It totally does. Give Andujar a real shot. If he show he can hit then the need for Manny is diminished. Not comparing the 2 in terms of production, but in terms of dollars owed (which NY is cautious about now) a good hitting Andujar makes peanuts compared to a good hitting Machado (300 MM +). Why sign Manny when Andujar’s bat produces in that lineup

You are correct. I would rather spend the money on Kershaw and Corbin. The Yankees Stanton, Judge, Sanchez, DiDi, Torres, Bird- this team does not lack a power bat. If the Yankees determine Andujar can give them 270 with 20 and 75 over a full year they will not be in on Machado.

I want Andujar to get a chance. What I meant was that as of May 15th Cashman is not thinking about Machado at all. I think he’s hoping that Andujar, and to a lesser extent, Drury will establish themselves enough where he’s satisfied with either at 3b and Didi at SS.

I agree. Unless Andujar hits like Mike Schmidt the reat of the way this shoudn’t impact the Machado decision at all. I still expect them to be in on both Harper & Machado unless something goes completely left. The pitching market is thinner than people realize and I believe that if they really want an upgrade their best bet is more than likely gonna be the trade market for that.

Well that’s nice. Does he plan on taking a hometown discount? I’m still not interested in paying a guy $20+ million when he doesn’t have a track record of being a frontline guy and has blown out his elbow twice.

They’ve managed to avoid that question about Ells thanks to his injury problems, but that will eventually have to be addressed. Frazier is in no way gonna force anybody out of the lineup, I said it before the best thing to come from the Miller trade will be Sheffield.

Agree with you on that, if they could somehow get Fulmer. Problem is Adams and Frazier have lost a tremendous amount of value. From what I saw the Pirates wanted Torres foremost.
God Cole has looked really good.

Yankee scouting seems to be right on mark over the winter, they were going after Cole and Corbin who have both been real good so far this year. I think we will see more of the same from Cashman moving forward. He will land 2 pitchers, one at the deadline and another over the winter I’m not as high on Fulmer any more, but I can see Corbin as a free agent signing over the winter.

Do’t get to high on Cole…..first time around the American League….let’s see what happens once a book is written on him and hitters adjust to his stuff.
The asking price the Pirates put on him was extremely high….lCashman was right to take a pass on him…..and remember…..look what was given up for Gray…..do you think the Yankees/Cashman might like a Mulligan on that one?

No one expect Drury to spend the entire season at AAA. Austin has 1 option left. It makes sense to try and keep him until Bird completes his rehab and is ready to come back and then send Austin and one other (relief pitcher or Andujar go down (Andujar would probably go down vs Torreys just so h can play everday).

He’s not being called back up yet because he said the other day he still has symptoms and doesn’t feel 100 percent yet. So it was either option him or put him back on the DL for 5 days and then restart his rehab assignment clock. Otherwise I think they would of at least sent a pitcher down to pick up his bat for the two Washington games.

I’m not saying Andujar can’t be an all-star infielder– he’s so young, he can fix the few holes in his game and become a fixture somewhere. Just that with BOTH Drury and Andujar in the organization, packaging the latter for a starter makes the most sense.

Still, keeping Andujar is also a fine idea– he has the potential to be the Yankees starting 3B for a long time, and perform at a high level.

What you say makes sense. Texas also makes sense as they will shop Hamels and Beltre can’t play forever. I like Andujar but I will say this. I don’t know that Hicks is the long term answer in CF. I would rather trade Andujar than Frazier because as you correctly state- Drury is more than an adequate long term solution at 3rd base.

If you rule him out as not being worth keeping because of “horrible plate discipline and terrible defense” then what trade value is he really going to have?

If Drury wasn’t on the squad then I would gladly let Andujar work thru his struggles and see if he can adjust over 140 game period. Our team can carry his bat and his defense needs help but I wouldn’t call him a liability and I’ve watched most of the games.

I am a huge believer in letting the kids play. That said, I think Walker should be traded or DFAd when Bird comes back and I think a pitcher should be sent down to make room for Drury.
Holder should be sent down but only after Warren and Kahnle replace Cole and Hale. Considering they barely use Cole and Hale, the Yankees would probably use Warren and Kahnle just as much as they would use Holder, Cole, and Hale all together so it makes sense to me to free up a roster spot for a 4 man bench and run a 7 man pen.

Drury and Torreyes can both be great utility players and spot start for multiple positions to give players rest. I can see Drury getting regular AB’s by spot starting 3B, 2B, SS, LF, while Torreyes is used in the role he is already in.
Does anyone know how well Drury can play 1B?

No way Walker ever gets DFAd. He has trade value. Why would the Yankees drop him and pay his full salary against the cap and let some team sign him for league minimum. The only player who will get dropped will be Ellsbury. The guys can’t stay healthy. He kind as well retired due to health issue.

Thats an overpay for Corbin. While Corbin has done very well this year, he is a career 4.00 ERA guy on the last year of his contract. Giving up that much for a rental that you are not even sure will maintain his hot start is not the greatest move. Its almost as bad as giving up Gleyber for one year of Chapman.

I am up for a trade where the Yankees make a package around Gray. I think Gray is a good pitcher but NY may not be for him. Gray, Adams, and another mid-tier prospect or a high ceiling lottery ticket could net the Yankees a good SP with years of control behind him. Maybe the Tigers would be interested in that sort of deal where they would hope to flip Gray for more prospects while getting a highly touted SP prospect in Adams?

No team thinks Adams is more then a five-Starter or BP arm. It’s ridiculous to even think about trading Gray cause that’s just stupid, you’re gonna subtract one starter just to replace him with another when they need to add. Torres is who the Pirates wanted as the centerpiece for Cole and not Andujar. If they would have accepted Andujar-Adams-Frazier for Cole Cashman would have done that in a second. Yankees fans stop overhyping these prospects. Finally stop with the “I don’t want Machado” junk, name a player in the whole infield that’s better.

*or for that matter he would arguably be their best player. This Winter with Gardner 13 million, CC 10 million, Robertson 13 million, Warren 3.15 million coming off the books let’s see. Please don’t say you’d rather have Frazier over Harper for any reason.

Right, which is why you package Adams with another prospect and another good SP.
They dont need to add. They need to replace. They already have 6 viable SP options in Severino, Tanaka, Gray, CC, Montgomery, and German. That is already a good pitching rotation thats filled to the brim. Not to mention Sheffield possibly coming up in a year or so. For that reason, in order to upgrade the rotation, they need to replace. Its not like theyre the Rays, who are struggling to have a 5 man rotation. The only reason the Yankees would need another SP would be to feel more comfortable in the playoffs. But when Montgomery and German are pitching better than Gray, and you only have 5 rotation slots, you need to drop some players if you want to add a star-SP. Trading Gray makes the most sense to me, although you could option German and Montgomery.

Why would you want Machado, given the Yankees infield? Machado is probably better than everyone currently in the infield, sure. But what is the point in significantly increasing your spending just to slightly increase your production? If you have Andujar and Drury playing 3B well for cheap, why start paying 30M a year just to have a guy play a somewhat better? I dont know if you noticed, but the Yankees offense is not a problem. Have you seen their run differential? Any more to that would be overkill while emptying your wallet to do so.
Same goes for Harper. While he is better than Hicks and more than likely Frazier, it is unnecessary to go give him 400M when your outfield is Judge, Hicks, Stanton, Frazier. Now, if you were the Cubs and had Jason Heyward playing RF everyday I’d be all for paying Harper the big bucks. But when your team is already putting up record offensive numbers, putting a ridiculous amount of money into offense would be a bad allocation of resources. Unless there are big injuries or something like that, expect the Yankees to attack the pitching market in the offseason.

Look at what got the Yankees to the position they are in now. It has everything to do with trusting the “overrated” prospects in Judge, Severino, Torres, Andujar, Bird, Austin, Sanchez, Robertson, Montgomery, German, and making good trades. Their playoff drought came from spending the most money.

Yanks need to stick with youth NOW and move off Drury. The last 23 games prove the strategy.
Package the Walker, Drury and another Vet position player & cash to go out and get a STARTER! Can’t believe we can go all the way with this starting staff, when health / age factored are in.

Yeah, because Walker would definitely win them the playoffs. Remember they had Headly, Castro, Frazier, and other veterans? Im not saying they should ship off Drury but the whole “they need veterans to win in the playoffs” philosophy is over rated.